The Left iPod Touch Rumored to Rename to iPad Touch

Apple Updated iPod Touch and Killed Nano and Shuffle iPods

As we know, Apple updated its iPod lineup on Thursday and discontinued the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle.

“Today, we are simplifying our iPod lineup with two models of iPod Touch, now with double the capacity, starting at just $199, and we are discontinuing the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano,” an Apple representative told Business Insider in an email.

The iPod, along with iTunes, changed the way the world listens to music. As the years progressed and smartphones made the iPod less compelling,and the Shuffle and Nano iPods have effectively been replaced by the Apple Watch, which can store up to 2 GB of music—assuming you can stand to wear one.

What’s left with the iPod Touch lineup, an Apple spokesperson says they’re eliminations will allow them to focus on the iPod touch, which is the most popular iPod. To ease the loss of the two iPods, they’ve doubled the iPod touch’s storage from 16GB to 32GB, while keeping the same $200 price.

The weird history of Apple’s iPod touch

The iPod touch was, on paper, a perfect kind of device. Released a few months after the original iPhone in the fall of 2007, the iPod touch offered all of the same web connectivity and media playback features of an iPhone, but without the cellular connectivity.

As time went on, however, the iPhone came to quickly eclipse the iPod touch, in specs and functionality. The iPod touch was updated more slowly and with internals that didn’t match those of the iPhone. Plus, the iPhone became available on more and more carriers, and the cost of adding another smartphone to a plan became much less prohibitive.

And then, in 2010, Apple released the iPad. The iPad was criticized for being “a giant iPod touch,” but it turns out, that was something millions and millions of people wanted. Even better, you could get a cellular plan on the iPad for data only, at rates that weren’t overly prohibitive.

Will the left iPod Touch rename to iPad Touch?

With the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch now Apple’s bread and butter, there’s just no room (or love) left for iPods. As this point, we have to think Apple keeps the device around just because it isn’t losing them money, but we can’t help but think it’s a weird product that has been obsoleted by both the iPhone and the larger iPad.

In fact, all these years on, iPod Touch is essentially a very small tablet. It performs all the functions of an iPhone, except for being able to make a phone call. It is no longer just a simple, singular, music-playing device. Perhaps Apple should think about renaming it the iPad Touch.